Good evening all. Well I am on the Isle of Arran. I have told you that we visit here as we have family here and usually camp in Lochranza, it is always in the summer. We had an unexpected invitation to come over to a family birthday and reunion, after booking leave, the cat into the cattery, a self catering cottage, leaving at 7.30am, ferry over, 7.5 hrs travel, here we are! We have a lovely little cottage for a few nights, fully furnished, it's just lovely and with a bottle of red wine and some fresh flowers on arrival! On reading the guest book, many birds and red squirrels come to the garden, where is my bird food, at home! Well I packed everything I thought we would need! We met up with some family on the ferry and took them home, on the way one shouted, there is a huge bird sitting on that rock, it must have been a buzzard the other said, no far too big, I think it was the Golden Eagle!! My eyes are going to be peeled, hopefully I will get a few photos of some birds, wildlife and the views and post them when I get home. Lovely run down and over, dry, no wind, rain, snow, ice so fingers crossed!
A late winter adventure. I hope you enjoy your stay and meeting up with the family.
It will be interesting to hear about any birds you see at this time of year. I wonder if the huge bird you saw might have been a White-tailed Eagle as you are on the west coast. They do like to sit on rocks.
Oh Catlady, it sounds such a fantastic adventure and area so enjoy it all and I look forward to your updates. It's another place to put on my to visit list now lol
Wow, hope you have a very nice few days away with the family Catlady, and am looking forward to any pictures you get.
Sounds lovely Catlady, keep your eyes peeled and enjoy your few days away, we will await your stories on return eagerly.
As promised here are some photos from my trip. Now remember I have my iPad for taking photos, no proper equiptment, so its the best I can do.
Little side garden view with the end of the cottage.
Looked link a bay type leaf on this bush at the front part the of cottage.
A beautiful Magnolia bush to the other corner. We had a vase with some of those and greenery and a bottle of red wine in arrival!
Some view taken from Pirnmill, looking over to the Mull of Kintyre.
These fellows were taken grazing in Lochranza.
These were both taken from inside the car. View is coming down into Brodick.
Pretty pathetic these two I know, but it was grab and click! Honest it is a red squirrel. There was a feeder outside and many different birds came, as well as ground feeders, Dunnock, blue tit, great tit, Robin, wren, blackbird, starling, each morning we had a chorus with the robin and a beautiful thrush. The squirrel was wrapped aroung the feeder and was hopping from tree to tree, they move really fast. We also saw cormorants, swans and different types of gulls.
We normally take the West coast ferry, a smaller one, but due to only one going over and back in the day, on the winter timetable, we sailed from Brodick to Ardrossan, this was the big boy who took us over. I am so glad we went the days we did and were home before the snow, looking at the news tonight and seeing coverage of the very road we were on, it could have been us that was stuck for hours.
Hope you enjoy these. CL.
Lovely thread post Catlady and interesting to see the beautiful surroundings where you went on vacation and yes you can clearly see a Red Squirrel so don't apologise as the photos are lovely. What a pictureque area with flora and fauna of all variety. Glad you had such a nice holiday and glad you are safely home again.
You timed that perfectly and it sounds like you had a good time.
Very nice pictures Catlady, and I was just going to ask if that was a Black Squirrel :)
What beautiful countryside Catlady, and lucky you with the weather. Great to see the red squirrel, and yes they do move quickly but you caught it well. The garden looks really summery with palm tree and magnolia in flower, your I-pad worked well.
Brilliant set of photos CL.
I have to confess to having a soft spot for Scotland and the Scottish Isles, and long overdue a return visit.
Perhaps next year, we've a family friend in Kingussie, near Aviemore.